The Boy With The Pink Hair
by gottalovetigger
Summary: A young Weapon named Min has exciting adventures, friendship, and love. My epic Soul Eater Fan fiction! note: takes place after the end of the anime.
1. Chapter 1: Crona

**A/N: I'm sorry I havn't posted anything in so long! (not that anyone noticed, nobody reads these….. yeah but recently I have been into anime and such, particularly Soul Eater. This is my first Soul Eater fanfic! (please, no judging!) anyway, I DO NOT OWN SOUL EATER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS AND SUCH. And if you are reading this, please, please comment! (side note: the characters of Min and Amaya are based on real people.)**

**Chapter 1: Crona**

**I walked out of Professor Stein's class, smiling. I was doing so well with my grades! My scores are the same as Ox's, and we're tied for second in the class! First was, of course, Maka. The awesome thing is, Maka, Ox and I are all friends, so we don't hate each other if we do better than the others. Of course, there is plenty of competition, but that can only be expected. Lost in thought, I started making my way toward lunch. I wonder what we are having…**

**On the way, I saw some large boys shoving around a smaller boy with pink hair. I stopped. **

"**What's with the dress? You a girl or something?" asked one of the big guys. **

"**No! Stop it!" said the guy with the pink hair. My eyes widened. I had to do something! **

"**HEY!" I yelled, running up to them. "Leave him alone!" I glared at the biggest boy. **

"**What'cha going to do about it, little girl?" He asked me. Now I was really angry. My hands balled up into fists. If only Amaya was here... But, being a weapon, I couldn't really do anything by myself. **

"**Hey!" yelled a voice behind me. I sighed in relief. Maka! The boy seemed to recognize her, too. **

"**Come on, let's get out of here," He said gruffly. Maka glared at their retreating backs, then turned worried eyes toward the guy with the pink hair. **

"**Are you okay, Crona?" Just then, Soul came running up behind her. **

"**Maka…wait…up." He was panting. Soul was usually pretty fast. How fast had Maka have to have run for Soul to be so out of breath? **

"**Yeah, I'm okay," said the guy, I guess his name was Crona. "Thanks Maka. And thanks…" He looked to me uncertainly. **

"**Min." I said. He blushed. Suddenly, a weird looking thing FREAKING POPPED OUT OF HIS BACK! I looked at Maka, wide eyed. She gave me a look that said 'Tell you later'. The weird guy sticking out of the boy's back started blabbering about lunch. This was definitely the weirdest situation I had been in all day. That included Professor Stein's dissection of the day. Maka and Crona headed for lunch. I looked to Soul, who was still behind me. He was looking at Maka arguing with the weird guy and smiling. **

"**Soul," I began. "What's going on?" He and I started walking. **

"**That guy, Crona, is the demon sword." I hadn't really heard much about that. It had been kind of an undercover mission, and nobody had told me about it. Not even Kid.**

" **How is the demon sword a person? And what is the thing sticking out of him?" **

"**Well… It's kind of a long story." Soul said. **

"**Well then. Thanks for sharing." I replied. He smiled. "Sorry! But I'm sure Maka will tell you. In detail. For HOURS. So be prepared." "Huh?"**

**We arrived at lunch. After I got my food, I sat at our table next to Amaya, as usual. "A, what do you know about Crona?" I asked. **

"**Not much," she replied. " I know that he's Maka's friend, and that he's the demon sword."**

"**What is that supposed to mean?"**

**She shrugged. "I dunno." I told her everything that had happened. "We can ask Maka about it tonight, if you want." She said when I had finished. By now lunch was pretty much over and I hadn't really eaten anything. **

"**Yeah, sure. Soul says she would tell us," Why hadn't I heard about Crona before? It seemed like Maka really cared about him. **

"**Hey, Black*Star offered to teach us how to use enchanted sword mode today." Amaya said, jolting me back to the present. I looked at her in surprise. **

"**I thought that enchanted sword mode was something only Tsubaki could use? You know, because of her brother?"**

**She shrugged. "Black*Star said it's possible you could have it too. I guess we'll find out. And," Her eyes brightened. "Kid might come too!" I giggled. **

"**I don't know, will you be able to concentrate with him there?" **

**She glared at me. "HE'S COMING." **

"**Okay, okay! You win!" I said, putting my hands up in surrender. She continued to glare. I couldn't take it. I had to laugh. Then Amaya broke down and laughed with me. Soon we were literally on the floor and we couldn't stop laughing. Soon it got really quiet in the lunch hall, and people were staring. I managed to calm down. I had to drag a still laughing Amaya out of the lunchroom. Once the door had closed behind us, I heard one word. **

"**Fool!" I turned, still dragging Amaya, to see a little white creature with a top hat, a cane, and a long nose. I stared at it. So did Amaya. It stared back. Then it started singing and dancing… **

"**Excalibur, Excalibur, From the United Kingdom, I'm looking for heaven, I'm going to California.."**

**I continued to just stare at it. I take back what I said earlier. THAT was the most awkward position of the day. Amaya stood up. She had stopped laughing. We turned and started walking away. It stopped singing. "My legend dates back to the twelfth century, you know!" **

**Later that day, Amaya and I met Black*Star in the wooded area behind the DWMA. He kept pacing and muttering to Tsubaki. I felt like we were in some kind of boot camp. I shared a glance with Amaya. Then, suddenly, he straightened and looked us straight in the eye. "MIN! AMAYA!" **

"**Yes sir!" said Amaya. **

"**Amaya-chan!" I hissed. She laughed. Black*star ignored her. **

"**Keep in mind that we have no idea if this will work. And don't even think of possibly being better than me. You're not! I shall surpass God!" He pointed at the sky.**

"**We know." said Tsubaki. **

"**Right. Where was I?" **

"**It might not work.." offered Amaya helpfully. **

"**Right! You might have inherited it, you might not have. Do you have any idea, Min? I shook my head. **

**My parents had left 'on important business' when I was really little. We didn't communicate much. I barely knew them. I had been raised by Shinigami-sama alongside Kid, here at the academy. In result of growing up here, I was pretty aware of the goings-on at DWMA. That's why I was so amazed that I didn't know anything about Crona. When she found out, Amaya had been really jealous. She'd had a thing for Kid from the beginning. About that… "Is Kid coming?" My random question took Black*Star by surprise. **

"**Umm… later. He's kinda busy. But that's totally off the subject!"**

"**Sorry, Black*star." He sighed. **

"**Anyways. We don't know if you can do it, but it's worth a try. It's a great weapon to have." "MIN!"**

"**Yes, sir!" I said. Tsubaki laughed. "hypocrite" muttered Amaya. I beamed at her. Black*star ignored us. Smart guy. Maybe he wasn't all talk… never mind. I was letting my imagination run away with me again. "Min, ninja sword mode!" **

"**Right!" I switched to ninja sword mode. "Now, concentrate. I want you to resonate souls." "We broke concentration. **

"**Do we have to?" Asked Amaya.**

"**But we still haven't gotten it down yet!" I complained. **

"**Just do it! If you are ever going to be as good as me –which you won't- then soul resonance will be the least of your problems! **

"**Fine!" Amaya and I said at the same time. We glanced at each other and started laughing. Black*Star sighed. This was going to be a long day.**

**After a few tries, we managed to resonate. Tsubaki took over.**

"**Just concentrate really, really hard." she said. "Min, search yourself. See if you feel anything. It's like changing modes except…darker...sort of." Suddenly I felt it. I knew exactly what she was talking about. There was no way to describe it. **

"**Min!" yelled Amaya. She felt it too. **

"**Right!" I concentrated really, really hard, like Tsubaki said. I focused all my energy. . . . . There! I did it! It didn't last long, though. Soon, we were both on the floor, me back in human form now, panting. **

** Tsubaki was so happy. "You did it! You did it!" Black*Star was doing a celebration dance. And jumping jacks. **

"**I did it! I, the great Black*Star, have taught my priceless secret to these worthless girls!" **

"**Gee, thanks a lot!" I said. Suddenly Kid rushed in, Liz and Patty at his heels. "What did I miss?"**

**()()()()()()()()**

**That night, Amaya and I were brushing our teeth and talking about our day (It's a lot harder than it sounds-try it.) **

**Suddenly the door flew open and Soul fell in. " Help me!" **

"**Come on, Soul, I wanna play!" It was Blair. She was chasing after him, knocking everything over.  
**

"**Please!" He begged. It really was funny. I ran outside the bathroom and shut the door.**

**"Hey, Blair, there's some fish in the fridge!" I said, trying to distract her.  
**

**"Yum!" she ran towards the kitchen.**

** I went after her. She was halfway inside the refrigerator, looking for nonexistent fish . "Hey, Blair, I think you should move in with us. Me and Amaya, that is." "Why?" she asked. **_**So you don't kill Soul,**_** I thought. "Because we love you!" I said. "And," I grinned. "We have fish." **

**"No you don't!"  
**

**"Sure we do! but it's not in THAT fridge." I made a mental note to pick up fish at the market today.  
**

"ummmmm...**Okay!" she said. "I'll go get my stuff!" Once she was gone, Soul came in.  
**

**" Thanks, Min."  
**

"**Don't sweat it. I know she was bugging you. Besides, we don't mind, do we, Amaya?" **

"**What?" Amaya came in. **

"**Blair's moving in with us." **

"**YES!" she yelled. I laughed.**

"**Yep, I think she's okay with it. By the way, A, we were going to go ask Maka about that Crona guy…"**

"**Oh yeah!" said Amaya. "Let's go!"**


	2. Chapter 2: Maka's Story

A/N: Here's Chapter 2! I'm assuming everyone who will read this has seen the anime, so this will be kind of boring for you. . sorry! But it was necessary to the plot. I promise the next one will be MUCH more interesting! –devilish grin-

Chapter 2: Maka's Story

Maka was in her living room, looking through the postcards from her mom.

"Hey!" I said as we came in. She looked up and smiled.

"Hey!" She closed up her cards and put them in a folder. "What do you need?" Amaya and I sat on either side of her on the couch.

"We were wondering about Crona. What's the story about him? Maka bent down and pulled a photo album out of her bag. It was red, and on the front it said 'Friends'.

"Crona is a good friend of mine," she started."But when we first met, he tried to kill me." I looked at her, wide-eyed. What a dramatic way to start a story! "You see, Soul and I were on a mission in Italy to destroy a Kishin, and I sensed a strong energy coming from this church. It was a meister and a weapon, surrounded by a bunch of humans. I decided to go in, and see what was going on. Inside was Crona. He must have killed the humans and eaten their souls! It was a little creepy. I could feel the souls of a meister and a weapon, but there was only one person there. That meant-"She looked at me- "That he had a weapon inside of his body."

"Whoa." I said. How did that work? A weapon inside of him?

"But… It was coming out! It looked really painful. It just… came out of his back! It was this HUGE dude, and he looked so strange!"

"We saw a guy come out of his back today!" I said "But he wasn't huge! And it didn't look all that painful…"Amaya glared at me.

"Let her tell the story!"

"It started bullying him. Knocking him on the head and stuff. It was … weird. I said 'You should know that the hunting of human souls is strictly forbidden. Are you students? I haven't seen you at the Academy.' He had no idea what the Academy was. All he said was that 'she' had said it was okay to eat the human souls. I had to stop him. He couldn't be eating human souls!"

This sounded intense. I was literally on the edge of my seat. I guess Amaya was too, because she fell off the couch! We laughed. Soon we were on the floor, and we couldn't stop laughing! This was the second time this had happened to me today. Just then Soul walked in in his PJs.

"What are you girls laughing about?" We couldn't even remember.

"Maka was telling us about how you guys met Crona!" said Amaya. We pulled ourselves together.

"I'm out! I'm going to bed. Just don't make too much noise, okay?" Before we could say anything else, he left. Maka sighed.

"He doesn't like listening to my stories. He thinks they take too long of his precious time."

"Umm, how long IS this going to take?" I asked, looking at my watch.

"Probably all night." She said.

"Seriously?" asked Amaya. "I'll go make popcorn! And soda! We're having a party!" I smiled. This would be fun.

Once Amaya came back with all the party food, Maka started up her story again.

"So the creepy guy on his back turned into a giant sword! We started fighting. But when I tried to cut him… I couldn't. He got all hard! I couldn't cut him… And his blood. It was black!" I understood now. I had done a research on black blood a few years back. Amaya, though, looked totally confused. I decided not to spoil it for her.

"He kept talking to someone… I didn't know it then, but he was being controlled by the witch, Medusa. She ordered him to kill me then, but I couldn't hear her. Only he could. So then his sword screamed, and he attacked! It was terrible! He was hurting Soul, I couldn't fight him! I couldn't even block or Soul would have gotten hurt! Soul told me to block, but I wouldn't… I tried to run away. But the doors only opened inward, and he was coming closer. Then… since I wouldn't block with Soul, he turned into human form at the last second and shielded me from the attack! He got a huge wound from the blade…"

Maka looked kind of scared, thinking back on it. That must be terrible. I wondered if she blamed herself.

"WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?" Amaya was REALLY eager.

I laughed. "Don't fall out of your seat again!"

Amaya glared at me. "I'm serious!" she looked at Maka. "DID YOU DIE?" Maka and I stared at Amaya. "WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT ME FOR- ohhhhhhhhh. Never mind. Please continue."

"ANYWAY- no, we didn't die. Professor Stein came in, and he and Papa started fighting him. But the witch, Medusa- she interfered. The next day, I was so worried about Soul. I was scared he was going to die. Papa tried to cheer me up. It was pretty lame. But he told me about the Demon Sword. He said that when meisters or weapons eat human souls, they can become Kishins. That's why we aren't supposed to hunt humans. But Ragnorak, the demon sword, did. He was one step from becoming a Kishin."

"Ragnorak?" I said. "I thought his name was Crona?"

"It is." Maka replied. "But the actual sword itself, the 'guy' that comes out of his back? THAT'S Ragnorak."

"Ohhh. I get it now."

"Umm, you guys?" Amaya looked at her watch. "Not to be a party pooper, but it's getting late. Like REALLY late. It's almost one o'clock."

"It is? I guess I'd better finish up then.

"Soul and I started training to become stronger, so that we could fight Medusa. But it was very dangerous training, and it could have ruined our soul wavelengths so that we could never be partners again. It was really hard for us. Anyway, it turns out Medusa was posing as the school nurse. At our ball, she trapped us all inside an Independence Cube. But Sid managed to let Me, Soul, Black*Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, Patty, and Professor Stein out. We had to go underground. Stein had a whole big plan laid out, and Black*Star was supposed to fight Crona, but I convinced him to let me. I wanted a rematch. It was really hard. Medusa was controlling him, and he was so powerful. In the end I had to give in to madness to fight him. During this, I could see that Crona didn't really want to be evil, but it was Medusa who was controlling him with the black blood. I ended up freeing him from the madness. We've been friends ever since." She smiled.

"So," I said. "Are you going to show us some pictures, or what?"

She looked at the album in surprise. "Oh! I almost forgot about those!"

We spent the rest of the night looking at pictures of her and Crona and all of our friends. It made me feel a little lonely that we had missed out on such cool adventures, but at least I wasn't the only one. Amaya hadn't been there either. And they were going to have much cooler adventures now that we were here! We ended up looking at pictures and eating popcorn until we passed out.

I woke up to the sound of Black*Star singing. It wasn't the nicest sound. He, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, Patty, Blair, and Soul were standing above us. "Wakey Wakey!"

A/N: Tell me what you think! OH, I HAVE AN IDEA! Tell me what you think Minawa (Min) and Amaya look like! Draw them, describe them, or find a picture, whatever! I will pick my favorites for winners! Doesn't that sound fun?


	3. Chapter 3: The Assignment

A/N: Sorry for the wait! Heh… This is kind of a long chapter. Expect quicker updates in the future!

Chapter 3: The Assignment

"So, class, I will split you into teams of 10. If your team can collect 5 of the scattered Kishin eggs within the time limit, you pass. If not…" Professor Stein looked his students in the eye. "You fail." The bell rang. "Class Dismissed. Don't forget to grab your instructions on the way out!" I looked at Amaya. This was so exciting! We had an assignment from Stein. It sounded like fun!

"Amaya, who should be on our team?" I turned to her.

She smiled. "Isn't that obvious?"

I grinned back. "Just checking." Right after I finished talking, Maka came up to us.

"Wow! This is perfect! We can all be on the same team!" she said. "You two, me and Soul, Black*Star and Tsubaki, Kid, Liz and Patty, and Crona! It's like the dream team!"

"That sounds PERFECT!" On the way out, I grabbed one of the papers labeled INSTRUCTIONS.

That night, I looked over the paper.

'Each group will have a limited amount of time to collect 5 Kishin eggs'…..'Must return to base point before time is up with all members'…. It sounded hard. But I was sure it was nothing we couldn't handle. We were some of the DWMA's best fighters. This assignment would be no problem. But I still worried. I decided to train as much as I could in the time between now and the assignment. That gave me approximately… a day. I looked at my watch. A day and a half. I had better get training.

I found Amaya in the living room, playing her guitar and chatting with Soul while a _Hetalia _special was playing on the TV.

"Amaya," I said. "We should go train." She stopped playing and looked up.

"SHUT UP, I'M PLAYING!" she played one last note on her guitar, and then smiled. "Okay, NOW let's train." I laughed. Amaya was so funny.

We trained as hard as we could, as a pair and as a group, until the assignment. At 12 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, we met Professor Stein and the other groups outside of the DWMA.

"You all know what to do?" he asked. We nodded. "Then…. Get ready…get set… GO!"

We ran for a while, and then only once we ran out of breath we decided to make a plan. Kid stepped in.

"There are 5 Kishin eggs out there. We don't need to keep running around forever to find all of them. Each pair will go and find one. Then we will meet back at the start. We can get it done a lot quicker that way." We nodded. It seemed like the logical thing to do. Amaya and I ran in one direction as everyone went their separate ways. It didn't take long before we found one, an ugly thing that looked rather like a giant crab, residing in a clearing surrounded by the thick growing forest. Amaya smiled. "Min! Ninja sword mode!"

The monster turned and sneered at us. 'Ooh, some tasty souls!"

Amaya pointed me at it. "Evil Crab thing, I am here for your soul!"

"You so stole that from Maka," I whispered. She shrugged.

"It works." She ducked as it took its first swing. Then she laughed. "Is that really all you've got?" I smiled reluctantly. We were doing fine. I needn't have worried so much. I began to think of all the time I spent training that I could have been doing other things…like playing my guitar…. I could have mastered the Fm chord!

"Min!" Amaya gasped. It had caught her on the shoulder. She glared at me. "Snap out of it!" I narrowed my eyes, determination setting in.

"Right! Sorry, I'm good now. Let's end this and meet up with the others!" she grinned, ducking another blow.

"THAT's my Min."

We spun and ducked and dodged every one of its attacks. It was pretty good. We couldn't get an opening. Just then, it roared and lifted its huge arm/claw thing. It brought it straight down on us, but Amaya blocked it. It kept pushing…..it was winning…we were….winning….

Suddenly, Amaya yelled and threw it off of her. One quick strike to the underbelly and it was on the ground. It wasn't dead, though. Amaya prodded it with her boot. Its eye opened slowly. It was recovering fast. Then a scream ripped through the air.

Amaya perked up. "That was Kid!" Before I could yell at her to stop, she had dropped me – ouch – and started running full speed in the direction of the sound. I rubbed my head and sat up.

"Mrrmph,"

My eyes widened and I turned my head slowly. The stupid monster thing wasn't dead yet! I started panicking. What was I supposed to do? I didn't have much time to plan, because it was moving now. I ran over to our bag – it had gotten tossed away in the battle – and pulled out the emergency shuriken. I was so glad I had packed these.

I knew if I let it get any stronger I wouldn't stand a chance without Amaya here. Ooh, Amaya, she was going to pay for this later. But you can't really blame her, I thought, because it was Kid. Her one great weakness. Of course, she'd never tell him that. I narrowed my eyes and threw the first shuriken.

Remember, I told myself- A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body. I lowered my center of gravity. I was so ready for this. It roared and flashed its ugly claws at me. I smirked. It thought it stood a chance? I looked it straight in the eye.

"Look, you've already got a huge wound in your stomach and you've lost a lot of blood. You can give up now and I can go ahead and eat your soul, or you can go out the hard way. Your choice."

It bared its teeth. I moved in for the kill.

"Well then. It looks like you're done for." It swiped at me. I jumped over it and threw a shuriken at its head. Just before it hit, I could see the beast's ugly eyes widen. I laughed and picked up its soul. Tasty.

"Oh yeah! This is going to be no problem for me, for I am the great Black*Star! No monster will dare cross me! I shall surpass God!" Tsubaki sighed. They were walking slowly through the forest. At this rate they would never be done in time to meet the others back where they had started.

"Black*Star, why don't we hurry up and get the job done and get back? The others might need our help!" This was the perfect strategic way to talk Black*Star into doing what she wanted. Instead of suggesting that he might not be good enough, which he would never listen to, she suggested that he might be so good that the others couldn't do without him. This way of talking was how they ended up running through the forest… and bumping into a little girl.

"What are you doing here?" asked Black*Star. "We're kind of busy! We have to-"The little girl turned around. Her eyes were red.

Black*Star stopped. What was with this? Tsubaki came up behind him. The little girl stared at them.

"Are you lost?" asked Tsubaki. The crying girl's eyes hardened.

"Hello there. I've been waiting for you." She smiled. Black*Star's eyes widened. Her teeth… They we so pointy... and sharp. He got over his shock.

"Tsubaki!"

"Right!" she turned into chain scythe mode. The little girl moved weirdly, as though she were a puppet controlled by an invisible marionette. Actually, she looked kind of like the way Crona did when he was being controlled by the witch Medusa. Black*Star kept looking at the sky, blocking her attacks but never striking back.

"Black*Star, what are you doing?" asked Tsubaki. "Just defeat her!"

"I can't kill her, she's just a kid!" The demon girl giggled and lunged at him. He jumped over her.

"Can't you see she's evil? You can't block forever! This is part of the assignment, just defeat her!" yelled Tsubaki. She felt bad for the poor girl, but she knew Professor Stein would never endanger an innocent girl for the sake of an assignment.

The demon girl grabbed the chain with her teeth and started gnawing on it. Black*Star's resolve set and he elbowed her off Tsubaki.

"Shadow Star!" he yelled. The girl disappeared in a burst of light, and a Kishin egg remained.

"We should probably head back now," said Tsubaki. "The others are probably waiting for us."

Kid took a deep breath. "Liz! Patty!" "Right!" they said at exactly the same time. He exhaled. Perfect symmetry. Once the girls had transformed into their weapon forms, he mounted his skateboard and took off over the trees, looking for a monster to kill. The setting sun burned in his eyes.

"There!" said Liz. "It's over by that building!" Kid swiftly landed behind the thing. It was HUGE. Tall and thin, it resembled a tree. But…. There was no tree that was this perfectly symmetrical.

Kid screamed. The sound rang out through the city like an alarm. The monster turned around.

"Come on, Kid!" yelled Patty.

"Kill it already!" said Liz. Death the Kid raised his twin pistols at the enemy he knew he must defeat… and lowered them.

"I…can't!" he shook his head and sank to his knees. "IT'S PERFECTLY SYMMETRICAL! I couldn't possible destroy such a beautiful thing - it's absolutely perfect!"

Liz rolled her eyes. "Uh, not this again!" She and Patty transformed back into humans and bent down to comfort him. Just then, Amaya came running from around the corner of a nearby shop.

"Kid-kun! What happened? Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

"That thing," Liz said, motioning to the tree-thing. "It's perfectly symmetrical." Amaya looked up.

"Daaaang."

Liz looked at her and blinked. Then she laughed. Meanwhile the monster was chasing a butterfly, being perfectly harmless. Amaya narrowed her eyes. "I have an idea. Patty, can I borrow you for a second?" Patty stopped dancing and looked at Amaya, slightly confused.

"Sure!" she popped into position and saluted Amaya.

"Can you turn into a gun for me?"

"Mmhmm!" Patty turned into a gun and Amaya held her with both hands, pointing her at the monster.

"Nyah!" Kid stood up. "You're not s-"

"SHH!" Liz covered his mouth with her hands. He continued blubbering in a muffled voice. Amaya aimed carefully at its eye… and hit the butterfly, which at that point had been about two feet away from her target. She giggled nervously.

"Heh… I meant to do that." After a couple more shots, and some pointers from Liz, she managed to hit it in the eye. It roared and charged at her. Then Kid pushed her out of the way and took Patty, and pointed both guns at the monster and started shooting. It wasn't symmetrical anymore.

"You are asymmetrical scum! You deserve to die!" He shot it over and over until it disappeared and only a Kishin egg remained.

The four of them began to walk back to the starting point together. Patty talked the whole time about her stuffed giraffe, and Liz examined her nails. Amaya snuck a glance at Kid and blushed.

"Hey, thanks Amaya." said Liz. "You really saved our butts out there."

"No problem." replied Amaya, beaming.

Maka ran through the forest. "Are we there yet?" asked Soul.

"No. I can't see anything!" she stopped. Soul changed back into human form with a scowl. "We can't just go running blindly into the forest. We'll never get anything done that way!"

Maka took a deep breath. "You're right. We need to make a plan. We can't just barge right into things." She closed her eyes. "We should find a high place and look around." She opened her eyes and turned around to look at Soul. "Okay?"

He smiled. "Okay."

He switched into a scythe and she jumped to the top of a tree. She shaded her eyes from the setting sun, looking for the telltale signs of souls gone bad.

"Maka, over there," said Soul. She spotted a shape. It resembled some sort of cloaked figure. Its weightless cloak trailed behind it like water. It was so graceful... yet so evil. Maka shifted her weight. Snap. She had broken a small branch. The cloaked figure's head turned. It had ruby red eyes, like pools of blood. It turned its body and began to advance on her. Slow at first, then faster until the edge of the cloak billowed behind its shadowed body. Her eyes widened.

Soul turned into a scythe. "Let's go, Maka!"

"Right!" She jumped out of the tree. "Demon, I'm going to eat your soul!" She swung Soul at it. The blade clinked right off. It lifted its head and smiled at her with an evil grin.

"Well, well. You think that's all it's going to take to defeat me? Think again!" It disappeared in a flick of its cloak and reappeared behind her. She whirled around and swung again, but this time it dodged. She swung again and again, but she just couldn't hit it.

"More…..more power…." It grabbed her around the neck.

"Soul!" she gasped. Soul charged at it, but it turned into smoke at the last second. Maka gasped for breath. "Thanks."

"No problem. Now let's beat this thing." He turned back into a scythe.

"Ancient technique of lore: WITCH HUNTER!" Maka aimed carefully and swung at it. It couldn't move fast enough. Maka and Soul were out of breath on the ground with a single Kishin egg. Soul reached over and grabbed it.

"Yum!"

They started to head back. After about 5 minutes, Maka heard a rustling noise. Could it be another enemy?

"Soul!"

Soul turned into a scythe (again) and Maka ran toward the noise. She jumped out at it.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" It was only Black*Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz, Patty, and Amaya. Soul turned back into human form. Maka looked around.

"Where is Min? And Crona?"

Black*Star shrugged. "How should we know?" Amaya gasped.

"Oh no! I left Minawa to fend all by herself! How could I do that?" she began to run in worried circles. "I'm a terrible partner!"

I sat at the finish line, weaving grass into a braid. How long was this going to take? The others still weren't here. I sighed. Just then, Crona walked up, Ragnorak pounding on his head.

"Stop it that hurts! Why are you hitting me?"

"Hey, Crona!" I stood up. "Where are the others?"

He blushed. "I'm not good at talking to girls…"

"But you talk to Maka!"  
He shifted his weight. I sighed. "Well we have to wait for them here anyways." I went back to my braiding.

"What are you doing?" He said shyly from behind me. I started.

"Um... I'm braiding the grass." He looked at it curiously.

"How do you do that?"

"Well, first you take three pieces of grass and tie them together like this…"

"Like this?"

"Yeah. Then you take one of the pieces from the outside and you put it in the middle.

Then take the other side and put it in the middle."

"Umm…" I looked at his braid and giggled.

"Here, you've got it all tangled up…" I reached over and started untangling his piece.

"See, Amaya, I told you she was all right!" I jumped away from Crona.

"Min! You're okay!" Amaya came running up to me and gave me a big hug.

"Uh, Amaya, you can get off me now…" I squirmed.

"I'm just so glad you're okay! I was so worried! I'm sorry for leaving you like that! I'm a terrible partner!" Once the whole group was on the other side of the finish line, Professor Stein came up to us.

"Congratulations. You all passed."

"Yeah! Of course we passed! I, the great Black*Star…"

"Shut up already!" we all said. I laughed. This had been fun in the end. I just hoped Blair hadn't ruined our apartment while we were gone…

A/N: Well I hope you liked it! It sure was a lot of work… As soon as school gets out I will be writing more, so it should be quicker! Please review! I love to hear your comments and suggestions.


	4. Chapter 4: Friends

A/N: This is a cute little chapter. I sure wish I could write more often, though. Ah well. We have two more weeks and then I could write every day! ^.^ enjoy!

Chapter 4: Friends

"You can do better than that!" Black*Star laughed as Amaya missed him.

"Shut up!" she growled and ran at him. She swung me in katana mode and I made contact with Tsubaki. We were identical as weapons. I flashed a smile at her and she did the same before Black*Star pushed us away. Amaya and I flew backwards. She skidded on the rough dirt and bent close to the ground to lower her center of gravity and balance herself. I loved the way she thought at the last second.

"Go Amaya!" Patty grinned.

Amaya ran full throttle at Black*Star. He swung at her. Just when I thought she was going to be hit, she jumped up, used Tsubaki's blade as a boost, and did a flip in mid-air, kicking Black*Star in the back. He fell forward and did a summer-sault. He jumped back into a fighting stance and grinned at us.

"You'll have to do better than that," he grinned.

"You haven't seen the real me yet," Amaya smirked, rolling up her sleeves. This time they both ran. Black*Star swung at Amaya's head, but she crouched down and stuck out her leg, tripping him. When he fell forward, she caught him on her back and heaved him up, throwing him to the side. When he hit the ground, he grabbed Amaya's leg and pulled her down with him. She screamed and fell, grasping my handle as if her life depended on it, which it probably did.

Black*Star jumped up and on top of her, in a squatting position just over her stomach. He held Tsubaki, now in ninja sword mode, just above her throat.

"You haven't seen the real _me_ yet," he whispered, grinning from ear to ear.

"Dude, too close," I said. Amaya burst out laughing. She grabbed Black*Star by the shoulders and pushed him over so that she was on the top. She held me up high and plunged me towards his chest. Just before she stabbed him, she stopped. A centimeter more would've killed him. She was slick. She grinned and stood up, helping Black*Star up. They weren't even sweating. How they managed it, I have yet to figure out, because I was sweating like crazy.

"Are you still up for another fight?" Amaya asked me, stroking my blade with her fingertip. Near the end she slit her finger. Whether it was by accident or on purpose, only heaven knows. Her face remained expressionless as she examined her finger before licking the blood off it.

"Sure, just lemme get some water," I panted, transforming into a human. I walked over to where Liz and Patty were sitting under a tree and took my water bottle. The cold icy water slid down my throat. It was heaven in this heat.

"Who's next?" Amaya grinned, holding out her arms as if ready to engulf someone in a warm embrace.

"I'll go," Kid smiled, standing up. Amaya blushed, but she hid it well with one of her famous grins.

"C'mon, Min!" she called, gesturing for me to come over.

"Coming!" I called back, dropping my water bottle by Patty's feet and dashing over to her. Liz and Patty followed.

"Are you ready for this?" Amaya asked, smirking as I changed into a chain scythe. She rarely used chain scythe mode, but she uses it when she trains with kid for the sake of his wellbeing.

"As ready as ever," Kid replied calmly as Liz and Patty changed into their twin pistols.

Amaya ran at him, holding her arms back like a ninja, trailing me behind. Kid raised Liz and Patty and shot. She easily dodged them. She went to her right and came around with a round-house kick right in Kid's side. As he fell he did a shoulder roll and landed on one knee, quite unsymmetrical, yet it didn't seem to bother him, and raised Liz and Patty. He shot one after the other. Amaya did a back flip, avoiding the bullets. When she landed she raised me, making an "X" with my scythes in front of her face, blocking one last shot. She smirked and ran at Kid. He stood up and was about to shoot when she changed courses. She turned to her right, and ran straight at a tree. She pretty much ran up the tree, flipping off of it just before she hit a large branch. She landed on Kid's shoulders, her feet perched there, my scythes making another "X" around his neck.

"Checkmate," she whispered in his ear. Kid smirked. He grabbed her waist and pulled her so she was over his left shoulder, dropping Liz and Patty who became human in mid-fall. Amaya let go of me. I hadn't had nearly enough practice as Liz and patty had, and turned into a human too late. I fell on the ground and landed on my butt.

"Warning next time!" I whined, rubbing my sore butt. Kid swung her from his shoulder, into his arms, then back to the ground.

"Sorry," she apologized, half laughing half gasping for breath. Well, at least _now_ she's tired.

"Oh, shit," Soul muttered as he checked his watch. "I hafta go get the groceries," he said with distaste.

"Yeah, we should go. I'll come with you," Maka said, jumping up as Soul slowly got to his feet.

"C'mon Tsubaki, I hafta finish that paper for Stein and I can't unless you make me some food," Black*Star grinned. "…And give me your paper to copy…" he muttered under his breath. Tsubaki smiled, obviously aware of his second wish.

"Yeah, we should go too," Kid sighed.

"I guess then trainings over," Amaya said sadly. "Oh well! See you guys later!" she perked up, pulling me up. We walked away. After twenty seconds, she gasped. "Oh crapola!" she gasped. I laughed. She started saying "crapola" ever since she started watching Hetalia, thank you Romano. "I left my phone there!" she cursed and ran back.

"Wait- …okay, I'll stay here then," I muttered, rocking on my feet. After five seconds I saw a bush rustle and screamed. Instead of sticking around to find what it was, I ran after Amaya. When I got to the clearing, I was about to shout for her, but then I saw her… with Kid. Alone. I couldn't ruin this moment for her. I jumped behind a bush and stared out from behind its many tiny leaves.

"Where are Liz and Patty?" Amaya asked, looking around.

"They just left," Kid said, staring at the sky for no reason. "I wanted to watch the sky for a bit," he added, sighing. Amaya looked up.

"That cloud looks like a tomato," she smiled and pointed.

"So it does," Kid smiled.

In my head I was thinking _aw! They're so cute!_ The two continued to watch the clouds for another half a minute.

"Have you seen my phone?" Amaya asked, snapping back to reality and looking around.

"Huh? Oh, no," Kid said, looking around, too. They began to walk around the area, searching the ground. I crossed my fingers and hoped they didn't find me; Amaya would kill me if she'd found out I was eavesdropping.

"Found it!" Amaya and Kid shouted at the same time, reaching for the phone. It was at the base of a tree not too far from me. I scooted over so I could get a better view of them. Perfect.

Amaya and Kid both grabbed the phone at the same time, they're hands touching. They both recoiled at the same time, and then blushed. Amaya laughed and picked up her phone. Knowing her, she'd think that being embarrassed about that was stupid. She stood up, Kid doing the same. Soon, they were both laughing. I sat there, watching them.

"Why are we laughing?" Kid gasped, wiping a tear from his eye dramatically.

"I don't know," Amaya giggled, though, to me, it was obvious she knew.

I smiled and quietly crept away on my hands and knees. Soon, I stood up and ran back to where she left me. I got lost once or twice, because I had been running the first time. Once I got there, I glanced around for moving bushes before I sat down and waited for Amaya.

She strolled over, looking unusually happy. I smiled. I liked seeing my friends happy.

We had curry for lunch that day. Amaya and I sat together, as always.

"Hey, Min, you know what telepathy is?"

I nodded. "It's when you talk to someone with your mind, right?"  
"Yeah! Well I was thinking…" she leaned in close. "Maybe we could try it! Then we could talk to each other during class, and no one would know what we were saying and nobody could tell we were talking!"  
"That sounds like fun!" I said. Then I frowned. "But how are we going to learn that?"  
"I don't know yet." She said. "I haven't thought that far."

I giggled. "That sounds like you."

Soul looked at us. "Do you guys always get along?" I thought about that for a moment.

"Pretty much. Except when she leaves the apartment a mess."

"And when she…" Amaya chimed in. We then proceeded to list pretty much every situation when we ever get on each other's nerves.

Soul sighed. We started to laugh.

Later that evening, Amaya convinced me to set up our apartment bathroom with scented candles. We sat down Indian-style on the cold tile floor. I glanced at her.  
"Uh, A…. what are we supposed to be doing?"  
"Think of a number between 1 and 12!"  
I thought of 8. It was my favorite number. Actually, it was Amaya's and Kid's favorite number too. Of course, Kid liked it because it was symmetrical and Amaya liked it because it was even. I liked it because it was swirly.

"2! You're thinking of the number 2!"  
I stared at her blankly. This was weird. Amaya so did not get into things like this. Normally I was the gung-ho one and she was the one who didn't care. She must really want to learn telepathy. I was curious, though… Why the number two?

"No, A. I was thinking of the number eight."  
Her face fell. I had to restrain myself from laughing out loud. She wasn't normally this animated, unless she was talking about Kid or anime. Maybe it was Kid. Her little crush was making her goofy.

"Maybe we should start with something simpler."

She nodded. "Okay." I tried to think of something simpler. I failed. Then I heard Amaya say 'Well, we could try doing a number between one and six….. Or we could maybe try something else… How could I not have gotten that one? I so thought she was thinking of the number two…'

I looked up at her. She was deep in thought. She hadn't said a word.

"All right, Min, let's try this again. What am I thinking about?"  
"Um… Kid?"  
"Well, DUH, but I mean, what am I wanting you to say that I am thinking about?"  
This sentence confused me slightly. Oh well. If she wasn't thinking about Kid, she was probably thinking about… TRAINING! Suddenly, I just knew that she was looking forward to our training tomorrow.

"Tomorrow. Training. A good job, maybe. Am I right?"

She looked at me, ecstatic. "YES! Wow, I cannot believe you got that!" I smiled.

If only that good feeling could have lasted longer.


	5. Extra Chapter 1

Extra Chapter #1

The shadows from the setting sun cast by the trees around us flickered in the breeze. A soft orange glow settled on everything like fairy dust, and the only sound that could be heard was the soft sigh of the forest.

I sat with Amaya on a grassy hill overlooking a valley. The grass was long and dry and warm, and I felt perfectly content. Life couldn't get much better than this.

Except if I was a Death Scythe.

"Amaya-chan?" I looked over at my partner. Her eyes were closed, if I didn't know any better I might say she was asleep.

"hmm?" she kept her eyes closed, her face pointed at the sky.

"We've only collected 13 souls, you know. We need to work a lot harder if I'm going to become a Death Scythe."  
She opened her eyes now. "13? Are you sure?"

I looked at her. "Yeah. Thirteen exactly."

She squeezed her eyes shut. "Thirteen isn't even…" She rolled onto her stomach.

"Yeah, I know. We better collect more then, huh?"

"Tomorrow." Her voice was muffled by the grass.

I sighed. "That's what you said yesterday. Where did your ambition go?"

"Writer's Block."

"What?"

A/N: I'm so sorry! Its summer break, and I was counting down the days until I could write all day long, but I can't think of ANYTHING! Please, please help!

Love from Gottalovetigger


	6. Chapter 5: Vacation! Part One

A/N: I feel like I'm saying this in every chapter, but I apologize for the wait! I took a vacation to New York… but I shouldn't make excuses! ^^ enjoy the chapter! (-part one-)

Chapter 5: Vacation! Part 1

"I can't believe it! Summer break has finally started!" Amaya danced around our room, waving her bag of chips around. Suddenly, she stopped and pointed her finger at me. "I have the BEST idea!"

"What's that?" I asked, taking the bag of chips from her. "You really shouldn't be waving these around like that; I'll have to vacuum later…"

She grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me like I was going to die or something. "Can't you see? That's not important! It's summer break! We get two weeks off of school to do whatever we want! I was thinking we could all go to the beach and have a party!"

I looked at her. She was being a spaz, but she had a valid point. We had some time off, why not make the most of it? Everyone deserved a break once in a while. "You know what, though? Most people get about two months off of school in the summer. Not here at the DWMA, though. 'The evil doesn't take summer vacation!' as Lord Death would say… Sucks, doesn't it?"

"TWO MONTHS! Wow, that sure is a long time. But I don't mind! It just means that I get to hang out with you more!"

"Yay for me..." I said under my breath.

"What was that?" She asked, smiling. "Anyway, we really should take a vacation. It would be sooo fun to have all of us go to the beach. What do you think?"

"Sounds like fun," I said "But you might want to check with the others. They might want to visit family or something."

"No way. Of course they would all rather go party with us!" She gasped. "Ohmygosh we could have a GERMAN SPARKLE PARTY!"

I laughed. German Sparkle Party it is.

Amaya talked to everyone about the party, and surprisingly, they were all for it. We scheduled to spend tomorrow at the nearest beach. Today, we were going to go shopping for swimsuits! Of course, we had to drag the guys along… Blair was REALLY excited.

When we got to the store, there was practically no one there. Soul was complaining; Maka had to practically drag him. Black*Star, on the other hand, was a little TOO excited… Tsubaki just stood there smiling like a dope. I couldn't help laughing at them. Wouldn't it be great if they got together? Maybe that was just my opinion. I turned around to face the group.

"We have one hour until the store closes. We have to be done by then, so try to be quick. But," I grinned. "Have fun." Blair started cheering like… Well, like an excited cat. You can guess what that sounds like. Luckily, she became distracted by the swimsuits, saving our eardrums from any permanent damage. Amaya led me to the ladies' section, having spotted the 'perfect' swimsuit. It wouldn't be the first time, or the last. This was actually kind of fun. I couldn't wait to see what the others would pick out. We found some swimsuits to try on, and even got a few really nice ones that we knew we couldn't afford, just for fun. Maka was already in the dressing room area when we good there, looking indecisive. Soul looked totally bored. I called out to her. "Hey, Maka!"

She looked up, relieved. "Hey, Min! Amaya." She held up two different suits. One was a pink two piece with white polka dots and a skirt, and the other was a simple blue one-piece. "Which one do you think I should get?"

"I like the pink one," I said.

"Oh, me too. It's a little girly for me, but I think it will look great on you!" said Amaya from behind me.

"You really think so?" asked Maka, considering the suit. "Okay!"

Soul sighed. "How hard was that? You could have just picked one to begin with and then you wouldn't have had to go through all that-"

"Makaaaa-CHOP!" that little complaint had gotten Soul a book-shaped dent in his head. It was funny for us, but not for him. Then Tsubaki and Black*Star showed up. Tsubaki was holding just one plain tan bikini to try on, but Black*Star was carrying a whole armful of colorful and-erm, INTERESTING choices. He was blabbering on about who knows what, and Tsubaki was just smiling and nodding, looking a bit amused and a bit annoyed by him. Especially when he tried to follow her into the changing room. Then, let's just say he got Tsubaki's equivalent of a maka-chop.

Once the rest of the gang had finished looking around, Amaya shouted 'Fashion Show!' and everyone started laughing. All of the girls, that is. The guys all had their own opinions. Soul and Kid looked bored and complain-y, Black*Star looked a bit like a kid in a candy store (freaky) and Crona looked uneasy. Poor guy.

Blair went into the changing room with a wink. "I'll be right back, boys!" I rolled my eyes. Didn't she have better things to do? At least she was having fun. That was more than I could say for Liz. She looked like she was dying. Patty was tugging on her arm, pointing at anything and everything that grabbed her attention. If she kept that up, she might yank Liz's arm off. And then Kid would be mad, because he would be asymmetrical. Speaking of that, I looked at Amaya's suit.

"You know, Kid isn't going to like that." Amaya's bathing suit was two piece, black with white lace and a chain on one side.

"Oh well, I do. Besides," she smirked. "It makes me look soo badass."

"You're pushing it."

Just then, Blair came out. Getting an instant bloody nose for Soul and Black*Star, and making Crona look more uncomfortable then I've ever seen him. I'm going to spare you the details. Let's just say that Saori Shikijo from Mahoromatic would be proud. Ahem.

"Noooooot happening, kitty." I said, shoving her back into the changing room. "Put some clothes on. Now."

"Ooh, is that an order, Min?" she asked, all sugar and innocence.

"Yes."

"You're so scary!" She whined.

"Shut up and get changed," I said, growling. Then I turned around. "Let's see yours now, Maka-chan. And you too, Tsubaki-chan.

"Okay!" they replied.

We went through the rest of them in a breeze. The only (predictable) incident was when Amaya modeled her suit. We were treated to Kid's five minute rant on the importance of symmetry. It made Soul laugh. When we were done at the store, it was sunset already.

後

That night, Amaya, Blair, and I figured out all the food and lights and stuff we needed to bring for the party, plus we packed a picnic basket for the beach. Then we spent a good few hours talking and deciding what we were going to wear. Before we knew it, it was well past midnight and we were completely spent. So we decided to go to sleep.

In the morning I was woken up by Maka.

"Hey," she said. "Glad you woke up. I couldn't get Amaya awake."

I yawned. "Oh, that's just Onee-chan. I can get her up." I walked over to Amaya's bed and whispered in her ear. "Poland is here. He brought you a pony."

She shot straight up in bed. "For real?"

"Nope," I stood up. "But you better get ready to go to the beach."


	7. Chapter 5: Vacation! Part Two

Chapter 5: Vacation! Part 2

Turns out Shinigami-sama has an old truck…. Who would've thought? So Amaya, Blair and I got in, with me driving (You can't trust those guys), Amaya next to me and Blair in the back. Then we went to go pick up Maka and Soul from their morning training session with Dr. Stein. They had been pretty focused on becoming stronger lately. It might have had something to do with our assignment a few weeks ago, but I wasn't sure.

Soul and Maka climbed into the back, next to Blair. Right off the bat, Blair started pulling moves on Soul and Maka hit her over the head.

"You guys!" I turned around to glare at them. "This is going to be a long ride if you keep arguing. Blair, just keep your hands to yourself."

"Lighten up, Min!" said Amaya. She punched my arm, probably trying to be playful. Ouch.

Then we stopped by Gallows Mansion to pick up Kid and Patty and Liz. We sat in front of the entrance for a minute, but nothing happened. Then I honked the horn. Nothing.

"Amaya, go knock on the door. See what's taking them so long. Please?"

"Sure." Amaya got out of the car and walked up to the front entrance. She knocked exactly 8 times. Still no answer. So she walked right into SHINIGAMI-SAMA'S HOUSE. What the hell? I'm the only one who's allowed to do that!**

A few minutes later I heard Kid scream. Oh God. Then, Amaya came out, dragging Kid by the collar. After her came Patty, dragging Liz out of the house. Liz was still trying to apply mascara.

"Hey, Liz! You know that's just going to run once you go swimming!" I yelled out the window. "Let's go!"

Once they were all piled into the bed of the truck, we drove off toward the supermarket to pick up Black*Star and Tsubaki. Tsubaki was getting groceries and Black*Star was in the manga section reading Charisma Justice and eating all the pocky. The manager of the store stood above him, glaring and yelling his head off.

"I'm sorry! He's really a very nice guy…" Tsubaki pleaded, Black*Star totally ignoring the both of them.

"Amaya, just go get them." I sighed. Amaya hopped out of the car and ran into the store, grabbing Black*Star by the hair and dragging him to the truck, Tsubaki following behind.

Amaya climbed back into the passenger seat, rolling her eyes and drying desperately not to laugh. She failed, big time.

"You owe me for that one. His hair is spiky! It hurt."

"Sorry about that. We pick up Crona next." I backed out of the supermarket parking lot, and then stopped. "Hey Maka, where does Crona live?"

"In the school dungeons."

"Why would he live there? Isn't that kind of gloomy and all?" I glanced at Maka in the rearview mirror.

"Well, he was imprisoned there when Shibusen thought he was evil, and he never left. I never really thought about it."

"Well, he should get an apartment! Geez…" I steered the truck out of the parking lot and headed towards the school. "Who is going in to get him?"

"I will, I guess." Maka answered.

"You don't have to, if you don't want to. I can always just make Amaya-chan do it."

"Hey!" I laughed.

Once we pulled up in front of the DWMA, Crona was already sitting on the front steps, waiting. Ragnarok was punching him in the head.

"I need some ramuné," I muttered to myself, looking at them.

"There's some in the cooler," said Maka. She heard me?

"Yeah, I can get you one if you want." said Kid through the window that divided the backseat and the bed of the truck.

I sighed. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll have a strawberry." They passed it up through the truck as Crona and Ragnarok got into the back with Kid, Liz, Patty, Black*Star, and Tsubaki.

"I see why you need that now." Said Amaya, gesturing towards Crona.

"Aw, shaddup," I said, reaching behind me to grab the ramuné being handed to me by Blair.

As soon as I got the wrapper off the top of the bottle, the little plastic plunger fell under the seat.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, opening up the door to grope around underneath the seat.

"Can we get going now?" asked Soul, bored. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Just shut up or come and help." It had to be in the very back corner, farthest from the outside, practically under the console. "Dammit…!" Finally, I managed to grab it, and climb back into the driver's seat of the truck. I popped open the bottle and drank a huge gulp.

"Finally. Now let's get going!" said Soul, who, I might add, did not help at all. "We just wasted like five minutes because of you!"

I raised my eyebrows at him, still swigging the ramuné. Soon we were driving off toward the beach again, and Soul's endless complaints had been smothered by Blair, and then completely silenced by Maka's blow to the head.

後

I shut off the truck in the parking lot facing the beach. Despite the delay, it was still only about 10:30 in the morning.

"All right! We're here!" Liz and patty jumped out of the back, followed by Kid, who was then being followed by Amaya like a puppy dog follows their master.

I stuck the empty ramuné bottle in the console cup holder to save for later. Call me weird, but I had a collection of (empty) ramuné bottles on a shelf in our apartment. So did Amaya, for that matter. But I had more.

Soul and I unloaded the picnic basket and blanket and who knows what else that Liz brought and found a spot on the sand to set it down. Immediately, everyone ran into the surf. I stayed up on the beach, shading my eyes from the bright sun. It was really bothering me, I have very sensitive eyes. I bent down and started rummaging through my bag for my favorite blue sunglasses. Then I rolled out the blanket and put up the umbrella, sitting in the shade and watching Amaya and Kid's water fight. Soon the others caught on and started splashing one another. Everyone but…Crona.

I looked around for him. He was on my left, along the beach a little and drawing stuff in the sand with a piece of driftwood. I walked over to him.

"Hey, how come you aren't in the water, Crona?"

"I…I don't know how to deal with this."

I scoffed. "Oh, sure you do. Never been to the beach before?"

He shook his head. Just then, I noticed his swimsuit. Or really, lack thereof. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't naked – I'd have noticed LONG before then if he was – but he was just wearing the normal dress thing he always wore. Come to think of it, I didn't remember him buying or even trying on anything when we went to the bathing suit store.

"Why aren't you wearing your bathing suit?"

"I don't have one."

"Why not? You could have gotten one at the store yesterday."

"You ask so many questions, I don't know how to deal with this! I don't know how to talk to girls, they make me nervous."

I turned to face the sea, the wind blowing my dress and my hair. Irritated, I messily tied my hair into a bun. I would have to braid it later.

"Hey, guys!" I started jogging towards my friends. Surprisingly, Crona followed.

"Hey, do you want to go shopping on the boardwalk?"

"Shopping?" Blair asked, pausing in the act of splashing Soul. He took the opportunity to drench her in a big wave, and she tackled him.

"Yeah. Besides," I checked my watch. 11:00. "Prime tanning hours don't start for another three hours." I nodded at Liz.

"Count me in, then." said Liz, trudging up to the dry sand towards the umbrella.

"But we just got here! Said Black*star.

"Actually, we got here 45 minutes ago."

No response.

"Well, Crona and I are going," I turned my back to the ocean. "But if you guys don't want to come, you can just stay here."

"Wait," said Maka. I grinned to myself and then turned back around with a blank expression. "I'm going if Crona is going."

"I guess that means I'm going too." said Soul, following her.

…

The 12 of us walked down the boardwalk with the sun at our backs. Soon we came upon a small shop with a window full of knickknacks.

"Let's go in here!" exclaimed Tsubaki, pushing open the door. We followed the door opening with a light jingle.

"Hello, kids." said a kind looking older lady at the front desk. The shop was a little dark and completely empty, and it held things like books and lace doilies and teapots and those sorts. A wind chime gently clinked above us, stirred by the gust of wind we brought in with us from outside.

"It's so dark in here," said Liz, shivering despite the summer warmth.

"This place is too small for a big guy like me!" shouted Black*Star.

"Black*Star, be quiet!" said Tsubaki, apologizing to the woman behind the desk. Maka went over to talk to them both. Soon the kind woman and the two girls were keeping up good conversation.

I found a set of black gloves that I thought Amaya would like.

"Hey, Onee-chan, look at these!" I said, holding them up for her to see. Patty turned to her sister.

"Hey, big sis?"

"Hm?" Liz responded, looking at a painted teapot.

"Why is it that Min calls Amaya 'Big Sis' when Min is older?"

"Actually, Amaya is older, by 4 days."

"So they're twins?"

"No, Patty. Twins were born on the same day."

"Oh, okay." After giving it some thought, she said "So they're just sisters, then."

Liz sighed. "They aren't really related."

"Then why does Min call Amaya 'Onee-chan'?" asked Patty, now confused.

"Because… Oh, forget about it, Patty."

"Okay!" Patty went back to blissfully staring into space. ~

We left the store not having bought much of anything, save Tsubaki and her new tea set. We spent the good part of an hour walking up and down the mile-long boardwalk, looking through the small shops and buying some pretty useless things. Liz complained about not being at the beach, but she wore a new scarf.

After a while, we came across a store that sold clothes. It was the largest store by far on this stretch of the boardwalk.

"Ooh, let's go in here!" Patty began tugging at Kid's arm. Kid looked up at the store sign. It said '88'.

"It's perfectly symmetrical!" exclaimed Kid, his eyes gleaming.

"Here we go again," said Liz, but I was sure she smiled. After that, Patty had no trouble getting Kid to go into the store.

Once inside, we were met with a large number of racks of clothing, all sorts of clothing you could even imagine. It was huge! Immediately Maka found a sports jacket similar to Soul's and held it up in front of Crona, giggling. This led to a whole round of everybody picking things out for Crona to try on. It was hilarious, and we managed to get him to buy a boatload of stuff. By the time we were done at 88, the sun was setting.

"Hey, look, the sun is setting. I guess we won't be tanning today," said Liz grumpily.

"Well, it was you guys who wanted to go into that store in the first place," I said, beginning to walk towards our stuff that was still on the beach where we left it. "But we can always come back some other time. We could spend the whole day laying in the sun, if you wanted to. Oh, and we still have the German Sparkle Party!"

"All right." We collected our stuff and went looking for a good place to have our German Sparkle Party. After walking for a while, we came across a secluded section of beach surrounded by palm trees. Soul, Black*Star and I went to go get the tables and lights and things, and we began setting up.

After the sun went down, we turned on the lights and pumped up the music. Best German Sparkle Party Ever. Rubber boots, Party pants, and all.

A/N: I'm sooo sorry this took me so long! But now I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a break for now. School is starting back up, and I need to concentrate on that for a while. As soon as things settle down, I will try my absolute hardest to get chapters up much much quicker! They probably won't be nearly as long, but at least you won't have to endure the wait! Thank you for all the support! Also, The contest for description (or depiction!) of Min and Amaya is still open. Just thought you would like to know!

~GOTTALOVETIGGER

A/N:

**= Minawa thinks that she is the only one allowed to enter Gallows Mansion without permission because she grew up there. She's just being selfish. ;)


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